pic: Team Fusion's T-Shirt Shooting Robot

[jdhawg]

Actually, the best time we've had with the shooter was at one of the football games last year. One of our local radio stations was shooting shirts into the stands and started saying that they could put one higher into the stands than we could. Now, just so you understand, we keep the pressure around 45 - 50 psi as a safety precaution. You don't want to whack someone in the head too hard if they aren't looking! I was sitting on the front row of the bleachers and Brandon (bhweezer here on CD) looked over at me and smiled. Then he reached down and cranked the pressure up to about 80 psi. The t-shirt went from the ground, up over about 40 rows of seats, and into the parking lot. The radio guys just walked away in silence.

Just a little background for those interested, this project began on the bus ride home from the 2004 Championships. I asked Team Fusion's "Big Kahuna" Mr Fava what we were supposed to do now that the season was over. (It was my first year and I didn't know any better. I'm sorry!) He said he had always wanted to be able to shoot t-shirts as a 'Get to know Team Fusion' kind of thing. The rest, as they say, is history.

The shooter is completely remote controlled. We have one if the indicators on the Operator Interface come on to let us know that the tank is full and ready to shoot. Our next little addition is to add a revolving light so people will look our way before we shoot. When we hit the trigger to fire, the light will come on and then a 3-5 second delay before it actually shoots.

It also does a great job shooting croquet balls. You can spend a great afternoon entertaining little kids by lauching the balls 150' across a clear field and having the kids go chase them!